It has recently been said that Everything Everywhere (EE, T-Mobile and Orange) should not have the option to make profits from trading additional mobile spectrum, according to the MPs.
The Telegraph reported that the company could be looking at digits such as £450m if it was to sell 25 per cent of its 1,800MHz spectrum.
This week, Ofcom confirmed that mobile broadband providers will be allowed to trade spectrum in order to boost performance and coverage.
It has also been underlined that one of the conditions of the merger of T-Mobile and Orange was that firm’s spectrum would be used in the mobile broadband sector in particular.
However MPs started to ring alarm bells, with some EE shareholders being German and French governments, which signalled somewhat of an uncertainty regarding where the profits would really go.
Tom Watson, Labour MP and member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, was reported by the Telegraph as saying:
“Is it right that the government should give away a public asset to a private company that it then makes a surplus on?
“The British taxpayer is not getting any of the money but the French and German governments will.”
According to MP Watson, a good idea is to invest the EE profits generated by the spectrum trade into the government’s plans to deploy high speed broadband in rural areas, as the scheme is currently lacking funds.
